Bleh

Well, that was a depressing Sunday.

Both the Colts and the Bears went tumbling out of the playoffs, despite both teams making a late rally and counterattack.

What especially pissed me off was Terry Bradshaw (who was once a quarterback for the Steelers) having a go at Peyton Manning (quarterback for the Colts) because he said in the post-game press conference that there had been "some pass protection problems."

(simply put: Between the quarterback and the defensive guys is a group of guys called "the offensive line". They have two jobs: On a running play they have to push the defensive guys out of the way so the guy running with the ball can get through; and on passing plays they have to keep the defensive guys away from the quarterback long enough for some guys to get downfield in position to catch a pass. That second job is called "pass protection" for obvious reasons. When pass protection fails, the defensive guys get through and tackle the quarterback (a "sack"), or at least cause him to throw the ball before he or his receivers are ready)

The pass protection for the Colts sucked today. And remember, when the pass protection fails, it's the quarterback who's eating turf play after play. So, yeah, Manning had the right to be a little bit pissed that every time he turned around there were Steelers in his face, and the fact that he controlled himself and described this farce as "some pass protection problems" is admirable.

Bradshaw, now a pre- and post-game pundit, held forth about how the quarterback, as the leader of the team, shouldn't be publicly criticising them.

Fuck that. His offensive line needs to know that they suck and suck bad. They should be lambasted in every form of media for their complete lack of ability.

Instead, they'll blame Mike Vanderjagt, the kicker, for missing the last-gasp equalising field-goal. People will remember the ball going sailing off to the right of the goalposts, but what they'll probably forget is that it was a kick that Vanderjagt should never have had to make and wouldn't have had to, had the Colts been playing like the Colts.

As for the Bears, they played bloody well considering their quarterback was only on his fourth professional game, and had only played once before this season. The Bears can at least have the satisfaction of knowing they played as well as they could have been expected to.